A/N: I do not own Hawaii Five-0. Or their characters. Just borrowing for a short while.
This is a one shot (I wouldn't even pretend it is short) inspired by the scene on 3.09. You know when Steve and Kono chase that stoned bank robber. The naked guy. When Steve throws her the cuffs and says it's her turn. Well... Kono, Steve, Handcuffs... how could I resist?
It's a third season fic, but there's no Adam or Cath. Nothing personal (largely), just a choice done for dramatic reasons.
Please tell me what you think.
He raises his head slowly. His head aches, and his eyes burn with the cruel light that comes from the open window. Judging by the position of the sun, it is much later than his usual waking hour. When he tries to move, he feels like every muscle in his body is aching and protesting against the challenge. What the hell happened last night? He tries to sit up, despite the pain, feeling pins and needles on what he concludes is his numb left arm, and senses an unusual weight on it. When he turns his head to the left, he sees a much too familiar black hair, sprawled all over his arm and on the second pillow. When his movement makes her stir, and she turns her head towards him, he can see the beautiful and sweet face of Kono, three inches from him.
"Oh no, not again..." the words escape his mouth before he has the time to stop them.
She opens her eyes with alarm to the sound of his voice, looking at him behind a curtain of lingering sleep "jeez brah, again?" she sighs in despair "for crying out loud, Steve. This is getting ridiculous."
()()()
They sit at his kitchen counter eating breakfast when he notices she is smiling behind her bowl of cereals. "Stop it" he scolds her "it's not funny."
"It's at least a little bit funny..." she contradicts him with apparent amusement. He's a weak pathetic man, because one look at her lovely dimples makes him break into a smile, too.
"I'm serious, Kono" he tries to collect himself and convey his feelings about this whole mess "this can't happen anymore. I'm not kidding."
"I know it can't" she nods reassuringly "I'm in total agreement about that" she is kind enough to promise "but... what can I do, when you keep changing your mind all the time?"
"I didn't change my mind" he notifies her from behind his back, as he washes his bowl in the sink.
"You could have fooled me" she grumbles, moving beside him to give him her own bowl, too. He turns halfway towards her, looking at her in silent despair for a moment. Then he dries his hands on the towel, and they make their way to the door.
"This time, it was you who started it" she reminds him the obvious when he follows her to his car "maybe you're just not... disciplined enough..."
"Not disciplined?!" he cries in protest making her turn towards him with surprise "I'm a Navy SEAL. I went through the longest and most complicated training in the US military. Let me assure you, I have no lack of discipline whatsoever."
"Fine, fine" she says quickly "I'm sorry." He seems to be taking this quite personally.
"It's your dress" he tells her when they sit in the car and he starts the engine "the way you looked wearing this dress... I just couldn't... even if I tried..."
"It's not the dress, Steve" she says decisively.
"Of course it's the dress" he insists "I'm telling you. The dress was what made me make the first move..."
"I really doubt it, baby" she repeats.
"What? why?"
"Because you've already seen me in this dress, at least five or six times, and it never drove you insane before."
"Five or six time?" he looks at her doubtfully "no way. I would have remembered."
"Apparently not." she grumbles "sometimes I wonder why I even bother to get dressed. Neither of you seem to notice how I look anyway. I should stop buying clothes, waste all my money on food, and come to work naked."
From the strangled groan he makes at her last statement, she knows exactly what image goes through his mind.
"I'm sorry, babe" she grimaces in commiseration.
"You should be" he tells her miserably "this kind of suggestions, will help no one."
()()()
They are so fucking late, it's actually not funny. It's all Steve's fault, because he insists they'll go by her house so she could get changed, and then to Kamekona's to collect her car. She tries to explain that it's not really necessary, that nobody will notice if she wears the same clothes or that her car is not in the Five-0 parking lot, but he is so god damn paranoid, he loses all common sense. he's convinced Danny will notice every little detail in her outfit, and that Chin will most definitely inquire how she got to work. She finds it much more time consuming to get into an argument, than to actually do what he asks. He is so grateful for her cooperation, and so appreciative of her complying with him, that when they pull over at the beach, near her car, he actually leans over and kisses her on her lips. She kisses him back, willingly. Well... maybe a bit more willingly than she should. Just before she climbs out of the truck, she reminds him he still needs to think of an excuse for their obscene lateness, when they finally arrive at HQ. She almost bursts out in laughter when she sees his expression turns immediately into that painful and agitated one Danny likes to mention so much.
"Ohhhh... just tell them we had to go to the governor, to do the annual women's employee assessment, or some other vague thing like that. It sounds official enough, that Chin can buy it, and it's about women's issues, so Danny wouldn't ask."
"Wow" he looks at her with surprise "that's sounds... pretty good. Well done."
"Besides" she tells him smiling mischievously "in a way... that exactly what you've been doing... for the entire night..." She closes the door on him, after she says it. When she looks back she can see him banging his head on the steering wheel.
()()()
A week and a half later he sits in the bar, looking at her from across the high table. He was able to tolerate Danny's nagging to go have a celebratory drink for breaking their last case, for almost an hour. Which is a record. Really. Usually he gives up the fight after twenty, twenty five minute - tops. He takes a good look at her before they leave HQ. She wears her usual Jeans and the most innocent tee shirt he can imagine, and her hair is made into an ordinary pony tail. She looks very professional, the model of casualness. He decides that it's relatively safe.
Only now it's two hours later. The lights are low. The music is loud. And despite the fact that he drank only one beer, and she carefully did the same, he can take one look at her in front of him, to know that he's about to fuck it all up. Again.
Chin leaves first. Goes home in a reasonable and sane hour, like he's supposed to. Danny gets a call from Rachel and spends ten annoying minutes on the phone with her, before he tells them he has to go, too. They remain at the table alone, looking pointedly at each other. Then, she makes a quick decision and runs away from him, to the dance floor.
He sits on the bar stool, looking at her under the colorful lights. Her body moves gracefully, as she dances, and he can see only her. He can't take his eyes off her, even to save his life. Ragged jeans and simple tee shirt his ass, she's the most sexy creature he'd seen in his life. He walks over, takes a hold of her hand and pulls her towards him, under the shining lights.
"Really?" she looks at him laughing.
"Let's go, Kono" he says. Shaking his head with self contempt.
"The music is great. I love it... Can we stay for one more song...?"
He waits exactly three and a half seconds, before he pulls her hand again. "Common, babe. There's a radio in the car. You can have all the music you want, there."
"You want to do it in the car?" she looks at him with astonishment "what are we? teenagers?"
"Apparently" he mumbles.
"Yes..." she sighs as he holds her against him, and kisses her "apparently we are."
()()()
She wakes up under his strong and heavy body, and raises her head a little bit, to try and see the clock. It's seven thirty, she's happy to notice, they're actually improving. With a little bit of luck, they wouldn't even be late. She strokes his hair lovingly, and gently kisses his temple.
"Steve" she whispers "wake up, baby. It's morning."
He raises his head from her chest, and looks at her, as he props himself up on his forearms. They both just look at each other in silence. She reaches her hand up, to gently trace patterns on his face.
"I wasn't even drunk, this time." he tells her offhandedly.
"I wasn't drunk either."
"It's out of control, Kono."
"I know, Steve."
"This time we started it off at a public place. It's risky. People know us around here" he says seriously.
"I know" she sighs "Danny was practically still at the same building."
"We need to stop it, Kono."
"I know, baby." she nods, biting at her lower lip "but, how?"
()()()
They drive to HQ together. The serious and desperate tone is gone, and makes way to their old comfortable joy filled friendly banter. He drives them to the bar, to collect her car, and she tells him again that he's over reacting. This time they can actually sell their partners a good reason for him giving her a ride home. It's practically a wasted opportunity...
"It's really not necessary, Steve. we can just say I was drunk."
"But you weren't" he reminds her.
"So...? now you want to be truthful?"
"We can't keep lying to them all the time" he tells her seriously "I want to keep it as honest as possible."
"Why lie at all, then?" she asks him exasperated "let's come clean with everything."
"You want to tell them we're sleeping together?" he looks at her incredulously like it's not the seventeenth time she suggests it.
"We might as well" she shrugs "at least we'll be done with all these sneaking around and lying through our teeth. What do we have to lose?"
"You want to tell your cousin, who was my father's partner, and who raised you up since you were a baby, loved you, and protected you, and taught you everything you know that you're sleeping with your boss?"
"Well..." when he says it like that...
"And tell Danny, who already thinks I'm a loose cannon, with a death wish, that can't stick to proper conduct and acceptable human behavior - and I'm really rephrasing here, because I don't want to use his usual offensive terms... you want to tell this guy who tends to have an opinion on every fucking little thing, and that still sees you as a rookie, that I'm fucking you on a regular basis, because, as he always suspected, I just can't help myself and my crazy alpha male animalistic needs?"
"Why the hell not?" she laughs at this quite accurate imitation of his partner.
"You're right" he cries "why the hell not? Why don't we just sit down with them, and tell them every tiny little detail?" He's on a roll now, can't stop. "We can describe the positions, and you can make the sounds you make when you..."
"OK, OK" she laughs "I got it..."
"No, really" he looks at her , pointedly "I can draw them some diagrams. Maybe Chin can upload it into an app..."
"Yeah" she nods enthusiastically. If she can't stop him, she can definitely join him "and I can explain how you always like it rough..."
"What?" he looks at her with alarm, as he breaks the car violently and parks it at the side of the road. She rolls her eyes at him, and at the burning look in his eyes. Then she moves to straddle him roughly, on the driver's seat. She holds his face between her hands and whispers "I can tell them, how you always want to be the one with the cuffs..."
()()()
It's her own fault this time. She is well aware of that. It was a big mistake to mention that during their stupid discussion, in the car. Obviously, it made them late. Again. And screwed up the entire day, after that morning adrenalin rush. He keeps himself in his office, and she stays with her cousin all day long. It's hardly enough.
By seven o'clock in the evening, she can't ignore the constant buzz in her stomach any longer. She takes a look at his office, and realizes he had left already to his meeting at HPD, and will probably go home without bothering to come back to HQ. She finishes all her assignments as quick as she can, and drives straight to his house. It's not him that can't contain it within himself this time. It's her, but the fuck if she cares.
He opens the door, after the first knock. It's like he's been waiting behind it, just for this. Before she has the time to say anything, he picks her up, and carries her to his bedroom. He throws her on the bed, making her shriek with surprise. He is already wearing his shorts and wife beater. She's still in her work clothes, with her badge and her gun, and all.
"Take them out" he murmurs as he hovers above her, kissing her chastely, his eyes boring into hers.
"Will you let me use them this time?" she asks smiling. It looks like they both have only one track mind.
"No" he declares "I'm using them. Give me the cuffs, baby. Now."
"You always the one in control..." she gasps as he licks her neck from her collar bone to her ear. "It's not fair!"
"I'm the superior officer, here" he mumbles, as he continues with his ministrations on her skin "besides. I always make it good for you. You really have no reason to complain..."
"Oh god, Steve!" she cries when he licks her again "fine, fine" she produces the cuffs from her back pocket "here they are..."
He helps her out of her shirt, and pulls her arms gently above her head. He gives her a slow tender, sensual kiss, then he cuffs her to the head of the bed. She sighs and moans with every touch. He's right. He always makes it so, so good. He's a control freak with an overly inflated ego. But in this situation, she has to admit it, it's quite an endearing trait.
"Are you OK?" he asks as his hand goes to her pants.
"Yes" she smiles contentedly "I'm great. Go on..."
()()()
"This was fucking amazing" he spits as he crashes exhausted beside her.
She turns on her side, and puts her hand on his heaving chest, smiling in agreement.
"Steve... can I ask you a favor?" she says quietly. He's so relaxed and satisfied at this moment, he immediately nods "Yes."
"Can I use the cuffs next time?" she whispers, her hand moves strategically down on his abdomen "just for once. We'll try it... and if you don't like it..."
He only looks at her with a pained expression, but she leans a little closer, and smiles at him. So he has to change his mind. "OK" he grumbles in resignation "next time you'll use it. But, just for one time."
()()()
He goes with Danny to see those Victoria's secret models first thing in the morning. He looks at her curiously when he tells her about it during breakfast, but she only smiles kindly, and shrugs with indifference, telling him to have fun. When they leave the house to go to work, he can't help it but feeling a bit... No. He's being stupid. There's no reason to feel this way. He tries hard to forget about it.
He's a bit short tempered after that, though. Even speaks harshly to Danny, which is a big mistake. Obviously. Danny lashes right back at him with vengeance, and starts with a full blown ranting session about civility and common courtesy. It's really not worth it. She feels a little bad for him, when they leave HQ, and Steve is still begging him to stop. She guesses that the fact that she took Danny aside, and threaten to fucking kill him if they spend too much time with the models, didn't really help.
()()()
He gets to the bank right as the wounded are wheeled to the bus. He manages to have a few hurried words with Max, before he steps in to find Kono and Chin already deep in the course of the investigation. They give him the gist and explain Max's weird behavior.
"Max has a girlfriend?" he asks in surprise.
"Yes. It looks like he's been holding on us" Kono shrugs happily at his question. A bit too happily than appropriate in this specific circumstances, if you ask him. Because, after all, they are speaking about withholding and covering up, certain relationships, with her cousin listening in.
()()()
They work well together. Really well. And it's a new experience in their little world of Five-0. As Danny is still busy with those ridiculous models, he teams up with her for the rest of the day. It's good. It's easy. It's professional, and interesting and quite productive, at the end. It's anything but the disaster he was imagining when he told her their steamy hook ups would ruin the team.
They drive around in his truck, and work the entire case together. Soon enough they find themselves completing each other's sentences and each other's thoughts without even thinking. He feels very relaxed and confident around the victim when he's with her, because she's so kind and gentle and has her own way to talk to these tormented people, he actually couldn't be more proud.
He finds himself looking at her from the corner of his eye, when she asks him questions and responds to his assessments. Her cute serious mouth, and the way she fixed her hair today, at his house... well... that kind of bringing the sexual tension back to the surface...
Soon enough though, they both are swept into the depth of the case, so the other issue between them is not even a factor anymore. This by itself, is the most important achievement in this case.
When they get the name of Makani Jacobs and make the trip to his house, he has no time for further contemplations about her and her cute little mouth. He's back in his operation mode, and she is too.
()()()
They find the guy dancing in his own backyard, stoned like a hippie, baked like a cake. When they close in on him, smelling the stench of sweat, alcohol and dirt from his unwashed body, he probably doesn't know what hit him, because he tries to make a run for it, despite the fact that they fucking stand their pointing guns at him. It's unfortunate that he happens to hold that filthy green hula skirt at the exact same time. Unfortunate that the guy jumps over the fence in the midst of his drugs induced high. He takes a short unhappy glance at her, and they both start to run.
They chase him through the yards at the back of the houses, and then on the street, too. Behind him he can hear her calling it in, on the radio, hears her dry exasperated description of their naked suspect, knowing it will probably be left for posterity in HPD history. The stupid suspect must be too stoned to care, that he's making it even more difficult for himself, and that making Steve McGarrett angry, is not exactly the best approach.
It takes two more fences to climb before he's finally able to tackle him and drop him to the ground. The guy is filthy and smells like sewage, he can practically smell it all over himself, now. She reaches them not a second too early. That's really nice of her, he has to say.
He pulls out the cuffs from his pocket, throws them at her and says "your turn. Fair is fair."
"Fair?" she looks at him incredulously "how is it fair?" if he thinks for one minute that this will count as him keeping his promise from this morning, he is very much mistaken. No fucking way.
()()()
They stand in the interrogation room in front of Makani. Usually he's more reluctant to let her work there, from obvious and well ignored reasons. But Danny is not there, and she's there with him to protect her, so he decides to make this one slide. It's not a bad idea. She works the room beautifully. At least he certainly thinks it's beautiful. Especially when she does that cute little trick, throwing the hula skirt at the guy's face. He tries to keep his face neutral when that cute gentle girl becomes quite intimidating, and the guy flinches under her stare. She breaks him so easily after that, and he joins in, as they work him together. The guy not only talking at the end of it, he practically can't shut up. When he offers to give them a profile, they smile triumphantly at each other. it's basically done.
When they step out of the room, he grabs her and pushes her into the smaller, hardly used second interrogation room, next door. He kicks the door shut behind them, and pins her to the wall. She laces her long arms around his neck, and kisses him with everything she's got. It takes them 45 minutes to get what they need off of each other, and to go back to the main floor, in a relatively stable state. Chin that sits there at the computer, only raises his eyes towards them for a second "you took your time..." he says offhandedly.
"Yes. He was quite hard" Kono says innocently, and with a straight face.
()()()
"I can't see why you were invited."
"Why wouldn't I be invited? it was my friend who got him the job."
"But you didn't do anything!" she taps her foot in annoyance "it was Danny who solved the case."
"Right..." he looks at her with confusion "the case I got him to do. I'm sorry. I just can't see your point."
"My point?" she cries in frustration "why do I need a fucking point? you were kidnapped by a suicidal assassin today, you should go to sleep early instead of running around as Danny's chaperone to this chauvinistic, testosterone driven lunacy."
"Kono, it's hardly a... what you just said... It's a... I think it's some kind of a costume party or a book selling or something like that."
"Steve, it's the Victoria's secret's fashion show!"
"Yeah!" he smiles towards her, as he puts on his jacket "it's that calendar thing. That's what I meant."
"Steve" she looks at him tiredly "do you know what a Victoria's secret fashion show is?"
"I'll see you tomorrow, babe" he smiles at her, making his way to the door "thanks for coming to... well, whatever it is that you came here to do" then he goes out the door to his car, and after a few minutes she leaves his house, too.
()()()
She wakes up when he climbs into her bed. "It's me" he whispers when he senses her sudden alarm. He settles beside her, and pulls her against him, her right arm encircles his waist automatically. Fitting in, in the most natural way.
"Did you have fun?" she asks quietly.
"Not as much as Grace did" he smiles in the dark.
So Grace was there? he could have said something earlier. Prevent her from running all these worst case scenarios through her head, time after time. She holds him a little tighter after that, and can feel him kissing the top of her head. It takes a second or two longer, until they both fall asleep together.
()()()
"We spent the night together almost every day in the last week" she tells him in the morning when she pours some coffee in his mug.
"I know" he murmurs, absentmindedly, scrolling through some data on his phone.
"Maybe we should talk about..." she starts hesitatingly.
"It's late, babe" he says as he takes a big gulp from his coffee "we should go."
()()()
They sit all four of them at Kamekona eating fried shrimps and drinking beer. It's a Saturday, and they're having lunch together, running jokes and arguing about cases, enjoying the afternoon breeze. It's fun. it's normal. It's the most usual part in their life as a team, until she puts her fork down, coughs a little, and just spits it out without warning.
"We're sleeping together" she says in a clear steady voice, when there's a small gap in the conversation.
"What?" Danny and Chin cry simultaneously.
"What?" Steve cries too, looking at her in shock.
"Well... we are..." she tells him apologetically "it's the truth."
There's a long silence around the table when Chin and Danny just look dumbstruck at the both of them, and Steve just looks like he has no idea what to do.
"Hey Chin" Danny calls eventually "You owe me fifty bucks. I told you they were fucking each other. It's amazing, but I'm practically always right."
"You had a bet about us sleeping together?" she looks at them furiously "what the hell?"
"I only put the money, to show faith in your virtue" Chin notifies her dryly "it looks like it wasn't the safe bet that I thought it would be."
"I had no faith in your virtue, whatsoever" Danny clarifies when she blushes "I always knew you were a shameless, sinful woman. And the crazy SEAL that you're sleeping with? he's a shameless bastard, too."
"So..." she looks at the both of them questioningly "you're not upset?"
"Upset?" Danny looks at her with surprise "why the hell would we be? as long as you don't do anything illegal or weird, or kinky, or..."
Steve almost chokes on his beer when he says that "no" he cries between coughs and gasps, looking pointedly at Kono "we don't."
"No problem then" Danny goes back to his shrimps "if anything, I actually think it will be good for you, Steve. Somewhere to burn all your extra energy. You'll be more relaxed, and it'll be safer for me."
"Thanks, brah" she mumbles "nice to feel useful."
"Oh, don't be a prude, Kono" Danny dismisses "it's the whole reason you do it. The sex thing, I mean. Don't you?"
"No it's not " she says honestly " We're actually not just sleeping together, we're... in love."
"You are?" Chin and Danny look curiously at her.
"We are?" Steve looks even more surprised.
"Of course we are, Steve" she mumbles sheepishly "don't be ridiculous."
They all look at Steve, as he looks steadily at her in deep concentration. Never says a word, never moves an inch. Then, he just shrugs, smiles, as he shakes his head in amazement. Then he goes back to his shrimps.